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Mickey Boland

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Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« on: July 31, 2008, 11:11:14 PM »
I live in Harlingen, TX and we just got through with Hurricane Dolly last week.  Attached are some photos I took of the golf course at my club on Saturday after the Wednesday hurricane passage.  A significant amount of flooding on the golf course as well as significant tree damage.  Apparently there is just shy of 300 trees that either came down or suffered major damage.  All sand traps will have to be reworked and refilled with sand.  Driving range is now open.  Plans are to open back nine sometime next week and front nine sometime within the next two weeks after that.  No damage to any green, and only minimal damage to a few tee areas.  Clubhouse had major roof damage as well as wind driven rain damage.  One lucky item is that our GM had come to us from the Lake Charles area after Hurricane Rita, and had made what turns out to be some very handy adjustments to our insurance policies, including a rider for debris removal from the golf course.  I haven't walked the whole course yet, just took pictures where I could this past Saturday.

#1.  Lots of trees and big limbs down either side of fairway, as well as fairway flooding.


Closer view of right side of #1 fairway


Tee area of #1


Between #1 and #5.  Not normally a lake.


From behind #9 green.  Lots of trees down also.


#11.  Lots of tree damage and fairway flooding.  Numerous houses in this area had flooding.


Closer view of left of #11


Swale between #15 & #16.  This is usually all grassed and in play.  At this point (three days after the storm), the ditch is about 10 feet deep and 40 - 50 ft. across, and running as fast as could be.  Had run like this for three days and stayed this way for another two days. 


#18.  Significant tree damage and water on fairway.


Street flooding at my house.  At this point we were about 3 hours into the 4 hour eyewall passage. 


 

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2008, 01:11:39 AM »
Mickey,

I hate to see that kind of damage, although, some clubs would currently kill for a good hurricane to speed up their tree trimming program! ;)


Any word on other south Texas courses and the damage levels?
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Dan Herrmann

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2008, 08:44:12 AM »
Mickey,
I'll bet you're back up and running a lot quicker than you'd have thought.  Nature can recover awfully quickly.

Thanks for the great pictures!

Mickey Boland

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2008, 09:04:29 AM »
Mickey,

I hate to see that kind of damage, although, some clubs would currently kill for a good hurricane to speed up their tree trimming program! ;)


Any word on other south Texas courses and the damage levels?

There is a course in the mid-Valley that is in a floodway that got blasted by rainwater runoff.  No other major problems that I'm aware of.  Harlingen seemed to get the worst of the storm of the larger cities in the Valley.  Estimates are anywhere between 16 - 22 inches for that day.  Still a lot of rural areas that have standing water.  I drove through some of those areas yesterday.

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2008, 11:07:08 AM »
Mickey,

Thanks. I am naturally worried most about my design over in Weslaco - Tierra Santa. I will email them to see how they did.
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Mickey Boland

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2008, 11:04:04 PM »
Mickey,

Thanks. I am naturally worried most about my design over in Weslaco - Tierra Santa. I will email them to see how they did.

Tierra came through OK as far as I know.  They did not get as much rain over there as we did, and of course they don't have the trees HCC does.  In fact, a group from my club was going over there to play the first weekend after the storm hit on Wednesday, and is going over there again this weekend.  Let me know if you hear any different.

Jeff_Brauer

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2008, 12:29:05 AM »
Mickey,

They actually have some pix up on their website, plus some notes that the course came through its 11" of rain pretty well, thanks to a design that accomodates fast drainage. :)
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Tim Copeland

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2008, 09:39:25 AM »
I dont EVER want to hear you say anything about Trump's waterfalls.......... :o
I need a nickname so I can tell all that I know.....

Bill_McBride

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Re: Hurricane Dolly golf course damage
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2008, 11:45:35 PM »
Mickey, you have been blessed by good fortune, all things considered.  We lost over 3,000 trees at Pensacola CC after Hurricane Ivan (Sept 2004) and had to rebuild the entire course.

Best thing that ever happened to us, we wound up with a much better course beautifully designed by Jerry Pate and built by his brother, Scott Pate of Seaside Construction.

Longest three years of my life - the year before, year of, and year after Ivan.  I was on the PCC board those years and was chair of the golf and green committee.  I really should write a book!

I'm really glad to hear you will be reopened so soon after Dolly, great work by your superintendent and crew.

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